Bhubaneswar, March 14 : Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi said Friday the Congress party does not care for the poor and tribals and always betrays the people.

"The Congress party is in a habit of making false promises. At the time of each election... the Congress comes up with a lie," Modi said while addressing a massive rally at the district town of Sambalpur in western Odisha, about 320 km from state capital Bhubaneswar.

A team from the State Pollution Control Board inspected the one-million-tonne per annum steel plant of Jindal Stainless Ltd. (JSL) in Jajpur district's Kalinganagar industrial complex, about 120 km from here, November last year.

The team found the plant was discharging huge quantity of pollutants outside the factory premises.

Bhubaneswar, Nov 23 : India Saturday successfully tested its nuclear-capable ballistic missile Dhanush from a naval ship in the Bay of Bengal, an official said.

The missile was fired from a naval ship as part of the training exercise of the Indian Navy, M. V. K. V. Prasad, the director of the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur in Odisha's Balasore district, told IANS.

"The test was successful," he said, but declined to specify the exact location in the Bay of Bengal where it took place.

Bhubaneswar, Nov 23 : Authorities here Saturday speeded up the verification of workers who were allegedly present at the steel plant of Bhushan Steel Ltd. in Odisha's Dhenkanal district during a blast furnace explosion over a week ago.

At least 35 labour contractors and placement agencies supplied labourers to the plant. The workers belong to Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, a senior district administrative official told IANS.

According to the labour contractors and placement agencies as many as 974 workers were engaged at the site on that day, he said.

After his arrival Sep 6 in state capital Bhubaneswar, Mukherjee would proceed to the temple town of Puri, 56 km from here, and spend the night at the Raj Bhavan there, a state home department official told IANS.

On Sep 7, he would visit the Jagannath temple and return to Bhubaneswar to attend the second convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bhubaneswar.

Indian steel producer Tata Steel has reportedly plans to acquire British steel giant Stemcor's iron ore mine in Orissa - a state situated on the east coast of the country.

Stemcor has defaulted on more than $1 billion of loans as global slowdown in the steel industry has hit its business hard. The British firm is thus trying to sell some of its assets to get rid of some burden of its loans.

The reported sale of its iron ore mine in Orissa is expected to fetch it nearly $800 million.

Bhubaneswar, July 20 : Odisha Saturday ordered a probe after nine new-born babies died within 24 hours in a leading government-run hospital, an official said.

The new-born babies, all between one and seven days old, were admitted for treatment in the sick neonatal intensive care unit (SNICU) of Veer Surendra Sai Medical College and Hospital (VSS) at Burla in Sambalpur district, about 325 km from state capital Bhubaneswar.

"The babies had different complications. They died between 9 a. m. Friday and 9 a. m. Saturday," medical college superintendent Laxmikanta Das told IANS.

Puri, July 16 : Visiting Odisha to pray at the Jagannath temple, Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP strongman Narendra Modi Tuesday sought to draw similarities between the two states and also spoke in Oriya, winning applause.

The chief minister thanked the people of Odisha for their contribution to the progress of Gujarat.

Bhubaneswar, July 4 : Korean steel major Posco's plan to build a $12 billion steel project in Odisha got a boost with the state authorities Thursday declaring that land acquisition for it was complete and 2,700 acres of land had been acquired for the 12 million tonnes per annum greenfield steel project touted as India's single-largest foreign direct investment.

The administration has demolished all the betel vines over 2,700 acres in Jagatsinghpur district, where the project will come up, District Collector Satya Kumar Mullick told IANS.

Bhubaneswar, July 3 : Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will visit Odisha July 16, his first to the state after being elevated as the campaign committee chairman of the Bharatiya Janata Party, a party leader said here Wednesday.

During his one-day visit, he is scheduled to go to the Jagannath temple at Puri, about 56 km from here, state party president Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo told reporters.(IANS)

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has said in a new order on Tuesday that status quo must be maintained at the proposed Posco steel plant site in Jagatsinghpur district. The order will halt any further felling of trees by the state government for clearing the site for the proposed plant.

Bhubaneswar, May 25 : Indian steelmaker Bhushan Steel Limited (BSL) Saturday said it was all set to double the annual capacity of its steel plant in Odisha to six million tonne by the end of this year.

The plant at Meramandali in Dhenkanal district, about 150 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, was commissioned in 2006. It has an annual output of three million tonnes.

In the first phase, the company invested Rs. 5,828.15 crore in the plant.

Bhubaneswar, May 18 : The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has summoned the Odisha chief secretary for failing to submit a report on the problems faced by patients and Ayush doctors in the state, a petitioner said Saturday.

"Such doctors are being forced to prescribe allopathic medicines although they are not trained for that," India Media Centre managing trustee and human rights activist Akhanda, who filed the complaint, told IANS.

Bhubaneswar, April 27 : State run-Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) Saturday bagged a Rs. 4,051 crore power project contract from Odisha Power Generation Corporation Ltd. (OPGC), an official said here.

The contract awarded to the power plant equipment manufacturer, include erection of the third and the fourth unit of (2x660 megawatt) coal fired power plant of the OPGC in Odisha.

The contract awarded is worth Rs. 4,051 crore which comprises of supply of the main plant (boiler, turbine and generator) at an all inclusive firm price of Rs. 3,748.94 crore and erection of the said main plant at Rs. 302.06 crore.

Bhubaneswar, April 25 : Describing as "unacceptable" the recent incidents of child rapes and brutal assaults on women in the country, President Pranab Mukherjee Thursday called for introspection at the "repeated failure to ensure safety" and said solutions must be found.

Addressing the 45th convocation ceremony of the state-run Utkal University at Odisha capital Bhubaneswar, the president said the recent increase in cases of brutal assault on women and children has shaken the collective conscience of the nation.